White admits doping role

By David Sygall

October 14, 2012 — 9.49pm

THE Australian former cyclist implicated in the sensational doping scandal around Lance Armstrong has quit his roles with Australian-owned pro-cycling team Orica-GreenEdge and his posts with Cycling Australia.

Matt White released a statement from his personal email account last night in which he admitted to involvement with doping, apologised and said he was standing down as a director at GreenEdge and from his roles as CA's professional men's road co-ordinator and team selector.

"I was part of a team where doping formed part of the team's strategy" ... Matt White.

''I am sad to say that I was part of a team where doping formed part of the team's strategy, and I too was involved in that strategy,'' it said. ''My involvement is something I am not proud of and I sincerely apologise to my fans, media, family and friends who trusted me and also to other athletes in my era that consciously chose not to dope.''

''I am sorry for the people I have let down because of the personal choice I made at that time, but I have endeavoured to educate and guide the current stars and to ensure that future generations never have to deal with the pressures that existed in the past.

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''Given my admissions above, I have been in contact with my employees and will be voluntarily standing down from my positions … while inquiries into my case are conducted and the Board of Cycling Australia and GreenEDGE make a determination regarding my future with each organisation.''

White was named in the explosive ''reasoned decision'' released on Thursday by the US Anti-Doping Agency. His name appeared in evidence submitted by disgraced former teammate, Floyd Landis, who had his 2006 Tour de France win annulled after testing positive to testosterone.

''While training for that Vuelta [in 2003], I spent a good deal of time training with Matthew White and Michael Barry [a Canadian, who has admitted to doping] and shared the testosterone and EPO that we had and discussed the use thereof while training,'' Landis said in sworn testimony.

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The financial backer of GreenEdge, Gerry Ryan, met GreenEdge general manager Shayne Bannan in Beijing yesterday to discuss the situation. Bannan had earlier said: ''We fully support Matthew White and trust his integrity as a sports director with us.''

White also said in his statement: ''In my roles with Slipstream Sports, Cycling Australia and now at ORICA-GreenEDGE, I have always acted within the ethos of clean sport and I am very proud to have worked with the new generation of clean superstars.''